The Bears saw defensive lineman Kentavius Street leave Monday night’s win over the Seahawks with a knee injury and it is going to keep him out for an extended period of time.
The team placed Street on the injured reserve list on Wednesday. Street will have to miss at least the next four games due to the move.
Street appeared in all eight games for the Bears this season and he started seven of them. He had nine tackles, two tackles for loss and a sack in those contests.
The Bears signed tight end Stephen Carlson off of their practice squad in a corresponding move. Carlson appeared in one game for the Bears as a temporary elevation.
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The Pro Football Hall of Fame announced five nominees who have advanced to the next round of consideration for their 2027 class on Wednesday.
The five nominees who will be under consideration for election are Ralph Hay, Robert Kraft, Virginia McCaskey, Doug Williams and John Wooten. A subcommittee for the Contributor category will discuss the five nominees and select one for the full selection committee to vote on ahead of the Super Bowl.
Kraft was that choice last year, but the Patriots owner fell short of election from the full committee. Hay, who owned the Canton Bulldogs and took part in the founding of the NFL, also advanced to this round during the last cycle.
McCaskey owned the Bears from 1983 until her death in 2025 while Williams won a Super Bowl as Washington’s quarterback before working in the team’s front office. Wooten played in the NFL, worked as a scout and became chair of the Fritz Pollard Alliance in 2003.
The Bears will not get offensive tackle Braxton Jones back in the lineup this season.
Jones was placed on injured reserve after Week 3 due to a knee injury and Brad Biggs of the Chicago Tribune reports that Jones had surgery that will end his season on Tuesday. Jones suffered a partially torn patellar tendon and delayed surgery to see if it would be possible to rehabilitate the injury enough to return to the team.
Jones opened the season as the left tackle in Chicago and this marks the second straight season that’s been interrupted by knee issues. Jones was limited to six games in 2025 by a knee injury.
Theo Benedet has taken over as the left tackle for the Bears.
When the schedule is released every May, plenty of standalone games that look good at the time morph into something not quite as appetizing as the season unfolds. Some standalone games get better with time.
This year, there’s a trio of massive games lurking on Christmas Day.
At 1:00 p.m. ET, it’s the Packers at the Bears. At 4:30 p.m. ET, it’s the Bills at the Broncos. At 8:15 p.m., it’s the Rams at the Seahawks.
With the Bears emerging as a threat to win the NFC North and the No. 1 seed in the conference, the rematch with their biggest rivals (who beat them 31-7 in Week 5) becomes must-see TV. Bills at Broncos, a rematch of a postseason overtime classic that got Buffalo coach Sean McDermott fired, should have direct implications on two division races and the chase for the lone bye in the AFC.
The nightcap shapes up to be not a battle for the NFC West title and/or the top seed but a potential elimination game, given that both Seattle and L.A. are currently 4-4.
Regardless, all three games should be significant. Impactful. Consequential.
And they’ll more than make up for the Christmas Eve game, which has the 2-5 Texans at the 2-6 Eagles.
In recent weeks, Simms and I have raised once or twice the question of whether Bears quarterback Caleb Williams belongs in the top tier of NFL franchise quarterbacks.
Based on Monday night’s 34-point performance against a Seahawks defense that held the Chiefs and Patrick Mahomes to three points a week earlier, it’s time to render a verdict.
Yes.
The new top four, in our view, are (in no particular order), Josh Allen, Patrick Mahomes, Joe Burrow, and Caleb Williams.
Lamar Jackson previously had been the fourth. A lost season due to multiple injuries puts him at No. 5, until he reestablishes himself in 2027. (And there’s no reason to believe he won’t, if he can get and stay healthy.)
For now, Caleb has crashed the party.
In Week 7 at Seattle, Mahomes completed 19 of 33 passes for 165 yards, no touchdowns, and one interception. His passer rating for the game was 58.9. In Week 8 at Seattle, Williams went 24 for 34 for 247 yards, one touchdown, and no picks. Williams also sparked a 39-yard gain on a key third-down backward pass to receiver Khalif Raymond, which set up the score that turned a 20-17 margin into a 27-17 clincher.
And before anyone says Mahomes didn’t have any support in the running game, Chiefs running back Kenneth Walker III and Bears running back D’Andre Swift averaged an identical 2.6 yards per carry against the Seahawks’ defense.
So, yes, Caleb is a top-level NFL quarterback. Despite missing three games with a hamstring injury, his odds to win the NFL MVP award are down to 5-1, behind only Allen, Brock Purdy, and Burrow.
If the Bears keep doing what they did on Monday night — and if they finish the season with the No. 1 seed in the NFC — Williams will get plenty of votes. And he has a real chance to win it.
Even if he’d much rather win the MVP award not for the regular season, but for the Super Bowl.
Fresh off last week’s trade from the Titans to the Bears, defensive tackle Jeffrey Simmons had a clear impact on Monday night’s win over the Seahawks.
Simmons finished the game with six tackles, two tackles for loss, a sack, and a pass defensed in the 34-17 victory.
Head coach Ben Johnson told reporters after the game that he gave Simmons a game ball or the performance.
“Our guys were excited the moment they heard the news we were bringing him on, and he’s fit right in,” Johnson said. “We have a high-character locker room, and he’s that himself. You can feel his presence out there, whether it’s during the play or even after the play. You can feel him talk a little smack as well which I think that elevates everybody around him.
“I thought he played outstanding. He got one of the game balls. To come in there and have a share of the lead of tackles and a sack in his first game, his impact was profound.”
The Bears allowed just 252 total yards on Monday night, which was 1 yard off from Seattle’s lowest output of the season. The Bears will be at home to play the Buccaneers on Sunday night in Week 9.
The battle lines were drawn, in the form of an $11,941 fine for Week 6 and a $23,882 fine for Week 7. For Week 8, Bears quarterback Caleb Williams decided not to wear Caddix cleats that displayed the company’s logo — and exposed him to another, even larger fine.
Based on the attached photo, Williams wore in Monay Caddix cleats that were made without any markings, thereby abandoning his ongoing fight with Big Shield.
“Just to calm things down, man,” Williams told reporters after the 34-17 win over the Seahawks. “This was a big week, and [I’m] not here to, um, create any BS towards a team. You know, I want to keep that to a minimum for my side. Obviously, I get a lot of media. And so, just try to minimize that as much as possible.”
He had gone from daring the league to fine him, twice, to daring the league to keep him from playing in his footwear of choice. All along, the answer was hiding in plain sight — hide the name and logo of the company that made the cleats.
Williams still doesn’t have a shoe deal, with Caddix or anyone else. Beyond reimbursing him for the fines (if the appeals fail), Caddix should be writing a sizable check to Caleb Williams. In one fell swoop, he gave the company far more exposure and positive publicity than the NFL’s official shoe partners have gotten for the millions they’ve paid to have their logos on the piece of equipment that few if any viewers ever even notice.
Jeffery Simmons had a sack early in Monday night’s game in Seattle, but the defensive tackle’s coaches and teammates made it clear after the 34-17 win that his impact on the Bears went deeper than his statistics.
The Seahawks averaged three yards per play when Simmons was on the field Monday night and the attention that Seattle paid to blocking him opened up avenues for other Bears defenders to make plays. Linebacker T.J. Edwards said that “you can feel his presence” on every play and defensive end Montez Sweat said he’s “looking forward to taking advantage” of how offenses shift their attention to Simmons for the rest of the season.
That all adds up to what head coach Ben Johnson called Simmons’s “profound” impact on the team and wide receiver Kalif Raymond said that it extended to the sideline as well.
“We’re always watching the Jumbotron, but we were really watching the Jumbotron,” Raymond said, via the team’s website. “Watching him play, watching the impact he has, I mean, he has a whole other element.”
The Bears gave up a lot to bring Simmons to Chicago and the first returns on the trade were nothing but positive.
It didn’t take long for Jeffery Simmons to get his first sack as a Bear.
Simmons took Sam Darnold down on the Seahawks’ fourth offensive play on Monday night, and he said afterward that as soon as he saw that they were blocking him one-on-one, he knew a big play was coming.
“If you block me one-on-one, I need to win the one-on-one. If I don’t win a one-on-one, the coaches should be on me. I hold myself to a high standard,” Simmons said. “It felt great to get my first sack as a Chicago Bear in my first game.”
Simmons always drew a lot of double teams during his All-Pro seasons with the Titans, and he drew plenty on Monday night in his first game since the Titans traded him to the Bears as well. He said he challenged his fellow Bears defensive linemen to take advantage of it when he was getting double teamed.
“If I’m getting a double team, I expect them to win their single block,” Simmons said. “We don’t need to blitz. I feel like if we can win at the line of scrimmage without the blitzes, that makes the guys’ jobs on the back end that much easier.”
Simmons played 55 defensive snaps, by far the most of any Bear in the game. He played 87 percent of the Bears’ defensive plays, which was exactly his snap count percentage for the Titans this season before he was traded. The Bears made a big investment in Simmons, trading two first-round draft picks for him, and they got a big return immediately.
In the moments before kickoff, Simmons said he was trying to keep his emotions in check by reminding himself, “It’s just football.” But it was hard not to be emotional.
“The emotions, especially during the national anthem, the emotions were coming and coming,” Simmons said.
Simmons said after the game that it means a lot to him to be playing meaningful football. The Titans are 1-7 and the Bears are 6-2 and Simmons knows the blockbuster trade was an opportunity for him to compete for a Super Bowl.
Welcome to Chicago, Jeffery Simmons.
Simmons had a dominate debut with the Bears, who acquired him from the Titans on Thursday. He made a team-leading six tackles, with a sack, a pass defensed and two tackles for loss, and the Bears limited the Seahawks to 252 yards.
The Bears rolled to a 34-17 victory over the Seahawks on Monday night.
Chicago is 6-2, and the defending champions fell to 4-4.
The Seahawks didn’t help their cause, with three unnecessary roughness penalties in the second half, including two on special teams. Kicker Jason Myers missed an extra point and had a 33-yard field goal blocked.
Sam Darnold threw an interception on a pass tipped by Austin Booker and picked by James Lynch, who returned it 16 yards to the Seattle 6. The Seahawks quarterback was sacked three times and hit six, including a sack and three quarterback hits by defensive lineman Montez Sweat.
Darnold never seemed comfortable against Simmons, Sweat and the Bears defense, as the Seahawks went 1-for-11 on third down.
Star wide receiver Jaxon Smith-Njigba kept Seattle in it in the first half and finished with six receptions for 118 yards and a touchdown. Darnold was 17-of-34 for 188 yards with two touchdowns and an interception.
The Seahawks had five three-and-outs and five punts against Dennis Allen’s defense.
The Bears gained 363 yards against the Seahawks vaunted defensive unit, with Caleb Williams going 24-of-34 for 247 yards and a touchdown.
D’Andre Swift had second-half touchdown runs of 1, 5 and 5 and finished with 27 carries for 69 yards.
